Emerson's Nature, Second Edition: Origin, Growth, Meaning

This new printing adds Orestes A. Brownson’s 1836 review of Nature and three essays representing Emerson schol­arship of the 1970s: Merton M. Sealts, Jr., on “The Composition of Nature”;Barry Wood’s PMLA article of 1976 on Coleridgean elements in Nature;and Barbara Packer on “Emerson’s Cos­mogony in ‘Prospects.’” The essays by Professors Sealts and Packer appear for the first time in this volume.

This scholarly work is a study of the origins of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s first book, here reprinted in full, then traced to its inception in Emerson’s lectures and journals, and thereafter seen as its critics saw it not only his contempo­raries, but critics of the later 19th cen­tury and those of the past three decades.” Capital Times (Madison, Wis.)